U.S.-Mexico Drug War: 2 Systems Collide

By JULIA PRESTON and CRAIG PYES

Published: July 23, 1997

Correction Appended

MEXICO CITY, July 22—
When American agents in San Diego arrested two men suspected in the brazen murder of an Mexican anti-drug prosecutor, officials in both countries praised the operation as a stellar instance of cross-border cooperation.

The arrests came after Mexican authorities gave their American counterparts evidence gleaned from a fast-moving inquiry that pinpointed the suspects' whereabouts to a stylish beach community on the California coast.

It was, seemingly, a triumph for Mexican law enforcement officials, who have frequently been criticized for both ineptitude and corrupt ties to drug lords said to spend billions of dollars on payoffs.

But as American prosecutors have tried to persuade a Federal magistrate to extradite the suspects for trial in Mexico, the case has become a cautionary tale about collaboration between law enforcement systems with vastly different standards for interrogating witnesses and building cases.

Some evidence provided by Mexico appears to have been gathered with methods that would not be permitted under American law.

Key witnesses interrogated in Mexico have recanted their statements, asserting they were extracted through torture. A Mexican judge acknowledged in court that one of those witnesses had fresh burn marks on his chest.

In addition, secret documents from another major Mexican drug investigation contradict some of the evidence Mexico provided American prosecutors to support the extradition.

The case has far-reaching implications. American officials regard extradition as a vital weapon in their fight against traffickers who frequently evade charges brought in one country by seeking refuge across the border.

The United States has tried for years, with limited results, to persuade Mexico to hand over a long list of Mexican citizens charged with crimes in this country. American officials hope that winning the return of the two suspects in San Diego for trial in Mexico will encourage Mexican officials to honor more American extradition requests.

The San Diego case is the second time in three years that American prosecutors have found themselves in court defending a high-profile extradition case for Mexico based on evidence that seemed compromised by American standards.

In the first case, the United States Attorney in Newark sought in 1995 to extradite Mario Ruiz Massieu, a former high-ranking Mexican justice official charged in his country with devising a cover-up in a political assassination. Two American judges and an appeals panel rejected Mr. Ruiz Massieu's extradition, with one judge citing primarily the ground that testimony had been tainted by torture.

The Assistant United States Attorney arguing the Government's case for extradition in San Diego, Gonzalo P. Curiel, has defended the quality of the evidence provided by Mexico.

When Mexico initially withheld the recantations by witnesses, arguing they were not valid under Mexican law, Mr. Curiel said that decision was appropriate. He told the judge that the witnesses' torture claims would make the case ''needlessly confusing.''

Mr. Curiel acknowledged at a hearing last month that the testimony he was presenting might have been obtained by coercion. But he told Judge Anthony J. Battaglia, the United States magistrate hearing the case, that it was up to Mexico to determine that.

''The Government is not here to deny there is a possibility of torture,'' Mr. Curiel said. ''There are serious allegations of torture. But the forum for those allegations to be aired is the Government of Mexico.''

Mr. Curiel said he could not comment further on a continuing case.

Alfredo Hodoyan Palacios, 25, and Emilio Valdez Mainero, 32, the men facing extradition, have been linked by Mexican and American investigators to the drug gang headed by Ramon and Benjamin Arellano Felix. A major drug cartel, the Arellano organization has been implicated in dozens of brutal murders, including recent killings of at least four Mexican anti-drug officers.

Mr. Hodoyan, who is known as El Lobo, or The Wolf, is said by American and Mexican officials to have been a gunman for the Arellanos. Mr. Valdez was a high-ranking lieutenant who was responsible for planning executions, drug investigators in both countries say.

The charges against Mr. Hodoyan stem from the murder in Mexico City of Ernesto Ibarra Santes, a top federal drug prosecutor in Tijuana, on Sept. 14, 1996. In contrast to earlier prosecutors, Mr. Ibarra vigorously pursued the Arellano brothers and declared brashly that he was on the verge of catching them. He died in a hail of automatic weapons fire after gunmen in two cars ambushed a taxi in which he was riding. Two other federal narcotics agents and the taxi driver died in the attack.

Almost immediately, Mr. Hodoyan and Mr. Valdez became suspects in that and other murders and Mexico provided the tip that led to their arrest on Sept. 30 in the United States.

To support the extradition, Mexican officials then gave the United States hundreds of pages of detailed testimony from Government informants and jailed drug dealers implicating the two men in the murder of Mr. Ibarra and others.

Correction: July 24, 1997, Thursday A picture caption yesterday with the continuation of a front-page article about cooperation between the United States and Mexico in the prosecution of drug traffickers misidentified the place where a Mexican prosecutor was assassinated in September. It was Mexico City, not Tijuana.